“No, no, we’re both fine. You got there in time.”

“Which wouldn’t have been necessary in the firstfucking place if you hadn’t run away from me!I left the room for like five minutes!”

“Yeah, well, it was probably a little more than that, actually.”

Jax flinched as Cade turned a furious gaze back to him, and thenfollowed Jax’s gaze to a few people standing outside the service station, looking over at them curiously. Huffing out another furious breath, Cade continued to pace up and down beside the bike, looking back down the road as if he was expecting someone.

He turned back toward Jax.“Look, I won’t fucking force you to go with us. If you want to leave, I’ll take you somewhere safe. ”

Jax shook his head. “N-no. I want to go with you.”

Cade angled a suspicious look at him. “Why the sudden change of heart? You just ran away from me before, at the motel.”

“I-I don’t know. ’Cause you saved us, I guess.”

“Yeah, well, what if it’s a case of out of the frying pan, into the fire?”

Jax shook his head. “I don’t think you want to hurt us. Do you?”

“No, Jax. I don’t want to hurt you. That doesn’t mean I won’t.”

Surprised, Jax stared at him with an open mouth. He really didn’t know what to say to that. Finally, Cade relented. “Okay, no,” he huffed out a long breath. “I won’t hurt you.”

“Then take us with you. You haven’t hurt us so far, and I’m…I’m tired of being on my own, hungry all the time. No place to sleep at night unless I can find some dirty bathroom floor. Hell, we’ll take our chances with you, if you’ll give us a ride.”

Cadestepped close enough to touch him, but simply stared into his face. “You’re not on your own anymore, Jax. I can promise you that, but I’m not going to tell you there’s not any danger. I’m not that big a fucking hypocrite. ”

Jax nodded, not sure what to make of what he said, but honestly too tired to care much. He’d found someone to take them in, at least temporarily, and if there was danger in this man, he’d soon find out. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to sleeping with one eye open.

In another minute or so, two of the others came roaring up on their bikes. Jax remembered one of them as Rayce, the nice one who’d brought them breakfast, and the other one was the man who had watched cartoons with Mason. After only a few words spoken between Rayce and Cade in that other language that Jax thought was French or maybe Cajun, Rayce turned and held a hand out to Mason, who went surprisingly willingly to climb up behind him. Rayce handed him a helmet and helped him fasten it on.

Pulling on his own helmet then, Cade swung up onto the motorcycle, handed Jax another helmet and made sure Jax was holding on tightly to his waist. In minutes, they sped off down the road, back east, the way Jax and Mason had come that morning. Within a few miles, they rejoined the rest of the group, parked in a fast food parking lot on the side of the road. Cade and the others pulled up beside them and switched off their engines. Right away Jax noticed the big biker from the truck stop—the one who’d been on his cell phone. So that was how Cade managed to arrive in the nick of time. Jax nodded at him, and he waved back cheerfully.

Jax could hear all of them talking to each other in that other language. Cade must have told them something about their destination, because a few of them pulled out maps from their bikes and studied them carefully.

Jax sat quietly as all the bikers bustled around, getting on their bikes, preparing to pull out again. They all seemed anxious, even happy to get on the road, even though the rain was still drizzling down. Jax was happy too. At least they were moving somewhere, and he and Mason needed to be on the move. He had to admit something about Cade made him feel safe, against all reason. As they were making their preparations, Cade came to stand next to him. He had a heavy jacket in his hands. “Here—put this on.”

Gratefully, Jax pulled it over the thin one he had on and fastened it up. He glanced over at Mason and saw he was wearing a similar one. Cade watched Jax broodingly.“One thing I need to know. How did you get away from me so damn easy at the motel?”

“We just walked outside. You were gone,” he said, trying to keep the accusation out of his voice and failing.

“I only left you for a few minutes, and when I left you were snoring. How did you get away so fast?”

“Got a ride.”

“A ride. With a passing car, I guess. And then you allowed yourself to be picked up in that truck stop by another complete stranger, who was taking you to his truck to fucking rape you and probably your little brother. Is that about right?”

Jax was silent, feeling a cold chill up his spine at the man’s increasingly furious tone. Stranger? What the hell did Cade think he was? At least Jax hadn’t been run down on the side of the road and kidnapped by the others. Though these thoughts trembled on his lips, some instinct for self-preservation prevented Jax from giving them voice when he looked up and saw the dangerous gleam in Cade’s eyes, suddenly remembering the cryptic remark he’d made about out of the frying pan and into the fire. He contented himself with a shrug, but even that gesture set Cade off.

“Of all the lame-brained, stupidass, reckless things to do…” Cade’s voice wasn’t all that loud, but it raised goosebumps on the back of Jax’s neck. “You need a fucking keeper, do you realize that? You stubborn little…I ought to…if I had any sense, I’d…” he broke off, and turned his back, rubbing his hands over his face. “Fuck!” he yelled.

Rayce, who had sidled over to stand by Jax in the middle of Cade’s tirade, raised one eyebrow at him and puta finger to his lips, warning him not to rouse Cade’s anger any further with a smart remark.

Finally, Cade seemed to get hold of his emotions and turned back to him, pointing a finger at him. “You want to leave again, you just say so. You hear? I’ll take you someplace safe and drop you off. But you do not take rides from complete strangers, petit con.Are we clear?”

Jax nodded, wondering what he’d just called him, and staring at a point somewhere beside Cade’s head.

Cade blew out a frustrated breath and Rayce clapped him on the back. “Do you want to keep the little one with you, Cade,or should he ride with Connor?”

Cade stiffened, still apparently angry, then shrugged in an offhand manner. “Doesn’t matter to me how the hell he rides.” He glared at Jax again. “He’s a pain in the ass.”

“Oh really?” Rayce smiled over at Jax. Jax motioned him closer.

“What the hell is a petit con?”

Rayce smiled and again and whispered in his ear. “Doesn’t really translate well. But sort of little moron.”

Jax narrowed his eyes and glared at Cade’s back.

Rayce held out his hand. “Come with me, and I’ll put you with Connor. You can keep his back nice and warm.”

Cade growled at his friend loud enough that Jax could hear it. “No! Fuck you, Rayce. Get on your damn bike and butt out of this.”

Rayce laughed and sauntered over to swing a leg over his motorcycle. “Don’t fight it so hard, mon ami. The soif de sanghas you right where it wants you. By the balls!”

Cade snorted loudly and got on the bike in front of Jax. “Hold on, damn it,” he said over his shoulder. “It would be just like you to fall off the back of the bike.”

Jax took a deep breath, stifling the urge to come back with a smartass remark. “W-where are wegoing exactly? I know you’re headed east now, but where to?”

“We’re going toGeorgia. Does that suit you?”

Jax nodded. “Uh...Georgia?” He frowned. “I was hoping we’d go west. Maybe a little farther from Alabama, but I guess that’s okay. For now. And you promise you won’t hurt us?”

For a brief moment Cade turned his head back toward Jax. “Relax and enjoy the ride, Jax.” Jax held on, but he wondered if he’d made a serious miscalculation when he’d thrown his and Mason’s lot in with the bikers. After all, Cade hadn’t made him any promises.

It was almost eight o’clock when they pulled into the motel outside Atlanta—still fairly early, but since the rain had never really let up, Cade found a place to stay on the outskirts of town for the night. They’d been on the road for over six hours, and the small warm body behind him was slumped against his back. Cade knew Jax was asleep, despite the cold rain that was falling. The boy roused a little when they stopped, but made no move to do anything more than sit quietly behind him as he spoke quickly to Rayce and made arrangements for the rooms. Rayce came back out after a few minutes, and handed him a key card. He pulled out the little map of rooms the clerk had given him and quickly pointed out exactly where each member of the pack would be spending the night. Cade’s room was on a ground floor, so he drove around to it, leaving Rayce to sort out the others.

He signaled to the boy to hop off first. Jax stumbled a little at first, but soon stood beside him waiting patiently as he secured his bike and handed him one of the leather saddlebags to carry. Cade suspected he was still half asleep. He followed him into the room then, taking off his helmet and slumping down in a chair by the door.

“Mason?” Jax asked.

“Rayce will bring him in a few minutes. He can sleep with you.”

Jax nodded and began to get ready for bed.

Cade tried his best to ignore him as he took off his boots and jacket, and unpacked what he’d need from his bag. He was actually acutely aware of every move Jax made as he followed Cade’s lead and took off his own boots and jacket. Cade jerked his head toward the bathroom. “Hot shower,” he said tersely, trying to force down his wolf, who was itching to throw the boy face down on the bed and jump on top of him. “I’ll go after you.” He grabbed the television remote, like he was even vaguely interested in watching TV when Jax was about to get naked nearby.